A few weekends ago, I partied like I was back in college, which was circa 2002, hence the title of this blog. My schedule got double booked with a birthday party and an actual, honest to god concert at the local bar/restaurant. Not exactly sure how the double booking happened in the current state of the world, but it did. Chip and the Charge Ups, my uncle and cousin’s band, were playing a show and we were having a party for my mother-in-law on the same night. I was able to go to both events, dinner first, then concert. It was late night, reminding me of the late nights in college.
I arrived at the concert around 9:00 pm and Chip and the Charge Ups were already on stage. I spotted my aunt standing near the stage with her camera, so I went over to say hi. She pointed me in the direction of her table where her friends were sitting and I went over there and sat with them for the show. It was loud and I had to yell to talk to them. Haven’t done that in long time, actually it’s been since November 1, 2019. It was a comforting feeling to have to yell at someone over the loud music. Felt like a little slice of normal life.
Standard Pennsylvania rules applied to the venue, 50% capacity of the restaurant, everyone had to be sitting, you had to order food with your alcoholic beverage, there were tables on the dance floor, more than 6 feet apart from each other. That was ok though, it reminded me of the VIP seating we get when we go to Mr. Smalls for concerts. Everyone just sat in their seats and enjoyed the show. A couple of the girls in the “front row” got out of their seats at one point to start dancing. They got shut down pretty quickly when the bouncer, or as I call them the “fun police”, came over to tell them they had to sit in their seats. Maybe someday we’ll get back to dancing, moshing, and crowd surfing.
Generally, bands try to get some audience interaction. And since we can’t dance or mosh, the band came up with a fun way to get the audience involved. Chip pretended to call our governor and ask if we could dance, mosh, and crowd surf. Of course, the “answer” was no to all of the above. But we were allowed to clap. So, they had us clap some of their song, The Ol’ 29er. Chip clapped the part of the song, then we all clapped what he clapped. It was entertaining and a thoughtful and unique way to get the audience involved! After a few more songs, the band left the stage and we cheered and yelled, “One more song”! Everyone from the band got back up on stage and played one more song.
After the show, the band cleaned up the stage and we all sat and talked for a bit at our table. The restaurant workers were cleaning up and turning on the lights. Once the lights came on, I stopped by the stage to say goodbye to Chip and headed home.
It was enjoyable evening and night, and I was grateful to be able to spend some time with almost all of my family.
Check out both Chip and the Charge Ups and Music By Maleena for some excellent music!
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